Journal Entry 3: War Digger
by The Admain Blacksmith Journals
Summary: The Admain Blacksmith Journals are a series of journals made to spread word of weapon and other ideas that I, the Admain, have created for use in any story, as long as I receive full credit for the weapon or other item used. Or, if you don't want to use it for ideas, you can simply read it for fun.


**_(Read account bio for context. Also, PM me if you'd like to use this idea in your story!)_**

Class: Vehicle

Rating: Orange

Source Material: None, but connected to the HTTYD universe.

"The War Digger is an incredibly powerful force in battle. It can easily dig through anything from clay or sand to solid steel, and with the combined force of its main and secondary turret, opposing armies can be overcome with ease. There's... just one problem with it. (Laughs internally.) It's tall. The turrets are on the top of the tank, so they can't hit anything within 7 feet of the sides, or 10 feet of the front or back, and only the secondary turret can aim backwards, which is too powerful to fire at close range. I found a solution for the sides and back, but there's nothing I can do about the front. Basically, the front is a weak spot as long as you don't get run over (or chopped up by the drill if it's on), and it's not all that hard of a weak spot to figure out either."

This entire project was definitely my most difficult so far. The whole thing was incredibly heavy on time and materials, not to mention energy. The first thing to do was to make a framework for it. I knew from the start that this thing was going to need a separate floor for the engine room, and that the driver would be on the top floor. That was one of _very few_ easy parts. The rest ranged from mildly challenging to _practically torture_. The engine seemed to have no problems at first, so I moved on. The next step was the drill, which after it was finished revealed my first problem. The drill I designed required more power then the engine could provide. I literally had to make a _completely separate engine_ that was more then _three times as powerful_ as the normal one. Then, I realized my next problem. This thing was going to take a massive amount of metal, just to finish the shell. I spent **three days** constantly gathering energy to be converted into the metal I needed (same stuff from journal entry 1). Minor setback, but still annoying. Of course then I realized that you can't make windows outta frickin' metal. So then I made a clear metal nearly as strong as the stuff I usually use, and it only took me about an hour. Yep, designing otherwise nonexistent atoms is just that easy for me. (That was a lie. It took me about a day and a half. I never had that much trouble with atomic construction before, and I hope I never do again.) The wheels, well... I mean there's not much that can go wrong with wheels, really. You kinda just... put them on, and attach an engine to them. Just kidding, the wheels were a problem too! Yay! The plan _was_ to have four wheels, but I couldn't find a way to fit the axle in for the back wheels without blocking any possible entry to the engine room. So instead of having two wheels, I just put on one really wide wheel, and put the engine room entrances on either side. Then came the turrets, which are what root this into the HTTYD fandom. This is because they fire the same plasma energy as Night Furies. The smaller front turret can fire the basic plasma blasts, as well as the lazer-like plasma shots that aren't as well known. (It was first shown in the first movie in the cove, when Toothless uses it to superheat the ground, then proceeds to lay on the now-warm spot like a cat. Hiccup then tries to touch Toothless's damaged tail, but Toothless scares him off.) The taller back turret is a bit more complex. It fires missles loaded with Night Fury plasma energy, and when the missles hit something, the plasma gets charged with electrical energy, which if you don't know what happens when you mix those... well it's quite the light show, let's just say that. (And by that I mean it makes a massive explosion, even with just a normal amount of the plasma.) How did I manage to get ahold of Night Fury plasma? I didn't! I made it, just like everything else I use for these projects! (And yes, the recipe for that was a pain in the butt as well.) Anyway, I finished those, put them on with everything else, looked at it thinking everything was finished... and immediately saw another problem. My biggest problem so far. The turrets have a blind spot. They can't shoot things within 7 feet of the sides, or 10 feet of the front and back. Immediately I knew there wouldn't be a way to fully fix this, but I could at least fix it mostly. My first idea was to just add turrets on the sides, but I scratched that plan instantly because, well, this thing already has enough turrets. So my next idea was to find something that would make it so that people _wouldn't_ get close, but then I thought, what if they _couldn't_ get close? So of course I go for the least feasible option first, and decided to put impulse boxes on the back and sides. I couldn't put it on the front though, because the drill would get knocked off. Instead of making a custom made control panel for the operator to drive from, I literally just modified a tank control panel. By this point I was done with taking the most difficult route. Thankfully, I was also done with this project. After 10 days of unending work, it was finally finished. The perfect war machine.

And nope, no last minute changes, no fun little extras, no special properties, nothing. This project was a pain, and I'm ready to be done with it.


End file.
